JEROMESVILLE — When Matti Willeke was hired to take over the Hillsdale volleyball program before the 2023 season, she never took the time to dig into the school’s history in the sport.
Told last week the Falcons would have won their first district title since 1976 had they not fallen 16-14 in five sets to Waynedale in last year’s district championship match, Willeke was flabbergasted.
This season, it seems her ignorance of the past has been bliss.
A perennial cellar-dweller in the ultra-competitive Wayne County Athletic League prior to Willeke’s arrival, Hillsdale has clearly turned a winning corner.
The Falcons opened this season a perfect 10-0 before falling to WCAL powerhouse Dalton (10-0, 6-0 WCAL) last week.
For perspective, from 2014 through 2022, Hillsdale was 2-124 in its league matches, winning fewer than 25 total matches in those nine seasons combined.
In Willeke’s eyes, that’s all a distant memory.
“We’ve really only looked forward, just about what we want to achieve,” said the head coach, who entered this week 46-40 in her fourth season. “It’s never been about looking backward and saying, ‘Wow, we weren’t really good in the past.’
“We are kind of on this forward vision about what we want to create.”
The Falcons were 11-1 (5-1 WCAL) entering their non-conference showdown Monday against undefeated Fairless (8-0, No. 8 in Division V).
In MaxPreps’ most recent state rankings, Hillsdale was No. 5 in Division VI. Dalton, which is 28-3 in sets played this season, was No. 4.
In their 11 wins this fall, the Falcons have captured 31 of their 36 sets. They held 17-11 leads in two sets against Dalton before a 25-23, 27-25, 25-21 sweep.
Willeke said she hopes that loss will be a great teaching tool for this year’s second half.
Hillsdale’s class of six seniors is the first group the coach has had all the way through high school, and the largest for the volleyball program in years.
Middle blocker Jillian Cowger — a Marietta University commit and one of two team captains alongside senior libero Gracie Bishop — has been a massive part of the sea change at Hillsdale.
“We didn’t really know how to win (before her freshman season),” the 5-foot-11 Cowger said. “We had some good athletes, but when Coach Matti came in, she wanted to change the perspective.
“Hillsdale volleyball wasn’t seen as something that was very fun, or that people liked doing. … She said, ‘Hey, we want to have joy in this game and we want to have joy with each other.’”
It’s been hard for the Falcons not to enjoy things lately.
The squad entered this season having won 14 matches in both 2024 and 2025, even finishing in a tie for fourth in the league two years ago.
Last fall, Hillsdale rolled through tournament play with three wins as a lower-seeded team before its matchup with Waynedale in the district finals.
That run included a 3-2 victory in the semifinals over Smithville — the Falcons’ first win over the Smithies in more than a decade.
Hillsdale won the heart-stopping third set of that match, 34-32.
“I think that game was when we saw all the pieces finally connecting,” Cowger said. “We realized, ‘Hey, we can really do something good with what we have here.’ ”
When Hillsdale lost in the district championship to Waynedale in five sets, the fire was lit for 2026.
The Falcons returned nine letter winners and seven starters this season. It is a group Willeke said has put an emphasis on making the sport a year-round priority.
Entering this week, based on MaxPreps statistics, Cowger ranked second among Division VI players in Ohio in total blocks (39) and seventh in kills (142).
Another potent senior, four-year starter Kiki McFadden is third in digs (188) and sixth in kills (150).
The outside hitter and six-rotation performer took over the program record for career kills as just a sophomore and has piled up numbers in that category (currently 796).
McFadden also has 25 aces, and Cowger and senior outside hitter Jordyn Fickes (83 kills) join her as four-year starters.
Additional Falcon seniors are Bishop (154 digs), Clair Brightbill and Joslyn Fickes.
Sophomore Emily Smith has proven herself as one of Ohio’s best underclassmen, leading Division VI in assists (329) while adding 93 digs and a team-high 29 aces. Her classmate, Macy Ritchey, is third on the team in digs (102).
“I feel like (the seniors) have grown alongside me and have really bought into the coaching and the teaching and the culture,” Willeke said, “and really have brought along a lot of the girls underneath them.
“You don’t have this success without them really putting in time and effort outside of the season to grow, get better and learn the game.”
That work ethic has come from a head coach who spent nearly a decade playing multiple varsity sports.
A 2005 Ashland High School graduate, Willeke was a four-year starter in both volleyball and basketball, and a three-year starter in softball for the Arrows.
She moved on to play both volleyball and softball at NCAA Division III Ohio Northern University while working toward a degree in nursing.
For three seasons now, Willeke has had her sister, MacKenzie Every, as her varsity assistant. Similarly, Every was a multi-sport standout at Ashland before going on to play volleyball at NCAA Division III Bluffton University.
“I’ve grown so much as a person and as a coach, and I’m doing my best to keep learning and pushing the cusp of what the girls need,” said Willeke, who had only been a club volleyball coach for a few years prior to taking over the Falcons.
“What I was coaching my first year, that’s being coached here in middle school now. It’s just such a different game, even within four years, compared to the game we were coaching my first year.”
Despite coming through the Ashland school system, Willeke said she grew up plenty familiar with Hillsdale. Among other family members, her father, Jeff McFarlin, was a Falcon.
She still remembers battling in softball against Hillsdale, which has seven state titles in that sport.
And while Willeke knows her volleyball program is nowhere near those prestigious heights, she said it’s fun to know Hillsdale has that type of talent in its bloodlines.
Cowger, whose family is loaded with former softball and volleyball Falcons, agreed.
“I’ve personally been really focused on leaving something for Hillsdale volleyball to have a name for ourselves; we’re not just a good softball school,” the senior said. “After my class leaves, we still want volleyball to be good at Hillsdale.”
The Falcons have just two WCAL titles to their name in volleyball (1984 and 2004). Their only two district crowns were in 1975 and 1976 — the first two years the OHSAA had a state tournament.
Both of those achievements finally seem to be within reach again.
“I think the perspective has shifted from just learning how to win and learning how to have fun with the game to now we really have the skills and we can hone in on really competing,” Cowger said.
The team’s focus, Willeke said, is solely on the present.
“They’re really great athletes, they’re great girls and it’s kind of the mixture of the magic,” she said. “I came in with a passion for volleyball and they just decided this was gonna be something they wanted to learn.
“We’re excited about where we’re going and what’s to come.”
